1. Field of the Invention
This invention relats to the manufacture of food products, for example skinless sausages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, skinless sausages have been made by a process which includes the steps of cooking a sausage having a skin, slitting the skin of the cooked sausage at both sides of the sausage and removing and discarding the sausage skin. This process is time-consuming and, because the skins are discarded after slitting and removal, also wasteful. Another known method for the manufacture of skinless sausages includes the cooking of sausage meat into a continuous "rope" which is subsequently cut into sausage-sized portions. This method has the disadvantage that it tends not to produce sausages of satisfactory shape, particularly as regards the shape of the end of the sausage. A third known method of skinless sausage manufacture involves chemical surfachardening of sausage-shaped portions of sausage meat prior to cooking.
The present invention has as one object to provide apparatus by which skinless sausages can be manufactured quickly and economically. Apparatus according to the invention is however also suitable for the manufacture of other food products. Skinless sausages made by the apparatus may be of any size, for example a size within the diamater : length ratio range of from 1:1 to 1:20. Thus, the sausages may be of the kind which is sold in tins mixed with, for example, baked beans but may also be, for example, frankfurter- or pepperoni-type products.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for processing food product forming material, in which the material is processed in a tube which contains the material in elongate compartments bound, at least in part, directly by the interior surface of the tube wall.
It is another object to provide an apparatus which can manufacture skinless sausages or other sausage-shaped food products of highly uniform shape, appearance and weight.
It is yet another object to provide an apparatus which can manufacture skinless sausages or other sausage-shaped food in microbiologically clean and hygenic conditions and which can be operated in this way for long periods in a commercial situation.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a skinless sausage or other such shaped food product manufacturing apparatus which is cleaned and maintained in a microbiologically acceptable condition automatically during its operation.